Empanadas de viento

Made these cheese and onion empanadas for our Ecuadorian World Cup meal. I was skeptical about the idea of sprinkling something savory with sugar, but it works. The recipe comes from Laylita’s Recipes, and goes into great detail about the different types of empanada dough.

Empanadas de viento
(makes 12)

• 3 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 110g (4 oz) butter, cut into pieces
• 2 Tg orange juice
• 1/2 – 2/3 cup water
• 2 ½ cups grated cheese (I used mozzarella)
• 1 cup onion, finely chopped
• sugar for sprinkling
• sunflower oil for frying

1. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together in a food processor, or by hand.
2. Add the pieces of butter, orange juice and water – 1/2 cup of the water to start and then more as needed until the dough starts to clump.
3. Form a ball with the dough and knead lightly.
4. Place the dough in bowl, cover and let rest at room temperature for about an hour.
5. Roll  the dough into a thin sheet and cut out round discs for empanadas. It’s  important to get the discs very thin since they cook very quickly when you fry them.
6. Mix the grated cheese and chopped onions together. Put  a spoonfull of filling in the centre of the each empanada disc.
7. Fold the empanada discs  in half and seal the edges, first pressing gently with your fingers, next use a fork to press down and seal, finally twist and fold the edges of the empanadas and then use the fork again for the final sealing.
8. Chill the empanadas for at least an hour, this will help them seal better and prevent leaks.
9. Fry the empanadas either in a deep fryer or in a frying pan, if using a frying pan add enough oil to cover at least half of the empanada, let the oil get very hot and fry each empanada until they are golden on each side or about a minute per side.
10. Place the empanadas on paper towels to drain any excess oil, sprinkle generously with sugar and serve warm.

Family score: 8.5 out of 10

Tags: cheese, finger foods, South American food, vegetarian